Top 100 Classic Books Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master stylist, both lush and precise, who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. Taking place mostly in Africa, Heart of Darkness tells the story of Europeans going to the Congo in search of ivory. However, the deep recesses of the jungle do something to a man, change him, and somehow demoralization begins.